Secure E-mail Project

Firstly you can see my screenshot of my inbox, showing the two received e-mails from the professor:

During this week we had to submit another project, called "secure e-mail". This project was about signing and encrypting e-mails by using Mozilla Thunderbird. I never used this programme before, but I think I am going to use it in the future as it provides a very convenient way to manage your e-mail accounts. 

While searching an article about a business using secure e-mails I found an article about Nike. This article is basically about Nike starting to adopt a world wide site license for its WorldSecure(TM) Server in 1999. This is when Nike started to really protect their e-mails. Shortly before, the company recognized that securing e-mails is key to successfully operating over the Internet. "Secure e-mail is key to Nike in order for us to leverage the Internet and Internet mail See Internet e-mail service.
..... Click the link for more information. for communications with hundreds of our trading partners and remote offices around the world," (CEO Tom Beane). In addition to encryption and digital signature, the adopted WorldSecure Server offers Nike the opportunity to protect its entire end-user community and business partners and blocking SPAMs and other unsolicited Internet mail.

Week 13: Clear

This week was about "Computer Security, Ethics and Privacy" and once again very clear. There is actually nothing difficult to understand in this topic, nevertheless it is important to hear about it. Especially in today's business environment computer security gets more and more important and crucial. Losing data to others might hit a business very hard. Securing your data is therefore of utmost importance for almost every business. The timeline of notable computer virueses and worms shows that there have always been, and will probably always be new viruses on the web, which might harm a business severely. In April 2008, the number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation has topped the one million mark. Programmers try to steal data with the help of these malware and expect to get paid in exchange. To not fall into that trap, you should always backup your data and use firewalls and other safety methods.

As a private person you should never respond to any spam emails. Even if you answer with a sentence like "Please to not send me any email any more!" you totally fall into a trap. This response shows the creator of the spam mail that your email adress is indeed valid and thus encourages him/her to send you even more messages. Therefore, be always aware of spam mails, never reply and only trust sources you know.

Week 12: Clear

This week's topic was called "Communications and Network" and once again, the concepts in the lectures were explained very clearly. The overall content was kind of dry though, as the lectures dealt with technical background of communication and network devices or softwares. But nevertheless it was good to get some of these concepts explained, as e.g. the part about internet security which should be more present in people's mind than it is at the moment.

What I especially liked was the lecture about communcaition applications, as this is actually a very important part of my study abroad here. I am almost every day connected to my home country via these communcation applications like instant messengers, emails or VoIP (Voice over IP). In particular this last application, VoIP, which I use in the form of Skype  is very important to me. The fact that people who are located in different party of the world can talk to and even see each other for free over the internet is quiet amazing and very useful for me. Of course you have some set up costs, like a video camera, or a microphone, but these are only minor costs compared to the huge benefits they deliver in the end.

But not only for me, also in today's business environment I think that such applications like Skype will become more and more important and useful. There is e.g. the possibility to use Skype for videoconferences, which makes communications among business partners very convenient. As more and more processes of a firm are oursorced and firms become more and mroe international, people who are widespread over the world will need to communicate frequently. And that is exactly where these communication applications come into play. Therefore I think the topic of this week was very up-to-date and important, although it was a lot of information for just one week.

Week 11: Clear

This week's topic was "Information Systems Development". As one might already guess from the name, the lectures for thie week were all very clear and straightforward. A information systems development consists of 5 stages, namely Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Operation/Maintenance. These stages are all very clear, first you start planning the system by after having recognized a need. Then you go to the analysis stage where you further investigate the feasibility and the plan in more detail. After that you start setting up a design for the system. This stage may actually take quiet a long time, but is also an essential part of the whole development cycle. You can then proceed by implementing your system. Last but not least, every information system must be maintained while being operated. This is a never ending process.

In today's business environment the setting up of an information system is very important, as systems are used everywhere. They are essential for a smooth functioning of a business and thus need to be created very in-depth and effective. Therefore you should always go through all of the above mentioned stages for not wasting time and money and ending up with a useless information system. For further information about that topic, click  here.

Database Project

In the last two weeks we had to work on a project which included the use of Microsoft Access. In that project we were supposed to imagine that we work for a local gym and got the request to set up a database to store individual information about the gym's members. As I had never used the software Microsoft Access before, I learned a lot of new things during that project. It all started with making up 5 entries for our database, including different individual information. Then we imported a list of 1000 members of the gym which then became the basis of all further operations we did. Accordingly we set up a query where we differentiated members having an individual membership and having left the gym during the last 6 months. Furthermore we set up a "new members form" to enter data for potential new members, and we created a report about the database. As said before, I never used Microsoft Access before, thus all these tasks were very helpful for me to learn about databases and Microsoft Access.

To further improve the created database one could e.g. also add new fields to the database to find out the reasons why people want to go to the gym. As the manager of the gym this information could be helpful to further customize your gym in terms of work-out methods, training offers, cardio machines, and so on. One could for example include a field called "reason" where people could enter their intention when they join the gym. You could also put this than in the form of a report to better present the reasons to the manager of the gym. But this all depends on the purpose of the database, and should just be considered as one possible extension of the functionality of the database.

All in all I really liked that project as this was a very good and practical way to learn about a software which could be very helpful in the future.

Week 10: Clear

The topic of week 10 was Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is a database software which I had never used before and thus it was very helpful for me to learn about that program. There are several actions you can perform with this software to set up and modify relational darabases. The lectures this week started with broad concepts, like creating a table (a set of data in a database) or importing and exporting data to and from Microsoft Access respectively, to more advanced topics like working with a query or a form and creating reports. 

As this is the first time I worked with that software, especially the lecture about what actually is a table and how to perform basic operations with it was very important to me. I learned that all data in a relational database is organized in tables where each field within a table is a discreet piece of information. Furthermore each field has a specific data type and there should at best be only one topic represented in a particular table. You can add descriptions to your table by simply click a row of interest and enter a descriptive information under the description label. Additionally you can let Microsoft Access uniquely identify a record in a table by labelling the particular record as the Primay Key. These basic operations help you to organize your data in a database very clearly and make them much more easy to modify later on. On the basis of that you can then tranfer the data, make a report or a form out of them, or just further modify them in the way you like.

In today's business environment I think Microsoft Access is a very useful tool, as databases are widely used and crucial to store important information, like customer data. Therefore I am thankful to learn about that program so that I am able to apply it in my future career. For further information about that program click here.

Week 9: Clear

Internet and the World Wide Web

In week 9 we learned about the Internet and the world wide web. One of the clear lectures dealt especially with the different uses of the web. Four different uses were outlined, namely to learn, to feel, to connect and to trade. I myself use the web mostly to connect. I use different methods to connect with friends, my university or other people. There is for instance the possibility via e-mail or the possibility to connect via instant messengers or chats, just to name a few. But moreover I also use the web to learn. Search engines play a very important role there. When trying to learn something new I almost always go to google.com and type in the word or concept I want to learn about. But of course I also use the web to "feel", to surf. When I do that I just browse through the web and entertain myself. A few years ago this was the main use of the web for me, today it is not any more. The last mentioned use, namely trade, is self-explanatory and probably the aspect I use least. Of course I already bought something over the Internet, through pages like ebay.com but I only do that once in a while.

In today's business environment, though, trade over the internet is very important. There are three different kinds of trade, B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumers) and C2C (Consumers to Consumers) which are all increasing in scale. And also relating to the use of learning through the web it is nowadays almost impossible to survive at a university without being connected to the internet.  Online courses at university were not imagineable about 30 years ago, but they are reality right now. Therefore I think the topic internet and the world wide web is very important and essential for us.